HB: 馒头 mántou, smart cards, people-watching, dust & housework, moisturiser
No idea why, but I've started eating 馒头 (mántou) again ie steamed bun - sometimes with a filling, sometimes plain. I've been having hot plain ones and dipping them in sweetened condensed milk that has been heated up. Both are heated up using the microwave and it only takes a few seconds. I could have done it in Australia as you can buy 馒头 in most supermarkets but just felt like eating it again I guess. Sometimes they fry the 馒头 and dip it in condensed milk - I don't like the deep fried ones as much......
I tried to look for photos of the perfect 馒头 but failed unfortunately. The ones I have sort of look like this:
But they can look fancier like this:
And in the marketplace you can see them being steamed like this:
Anyway, it's a nice simple snack. :)
Funny thing is while I was looking for a photo of 馒头, I found this. A photo of a cat named 馒头猫 ie his name is mántou māo - steamed bun cat because he looks like a little bun :) I don't like cats (being a dog person) but he is very cute, non? :)
Late starts and smartcards
I woke up a little late this morning because of a late one and then went into wudaokou by lightrail to the Sculpteasy Cafe.Rather than buying my RMB3 ticket each time, I've bought a smart cart for the light rail - it costs RMB30 and I put RMB70 on it which seems worth it given that I will undoubtedly be going back and forth frequently. The great thing is it means I don't have to queue up anymore and I can just go running through. As you swipe when you enter, it registers you have entered the rail system. When you leave through the other station, it deducts RMB3. There are also machines at each station where you can see your balance and also even see when you last used the card. It's surprisingly high tech. Now if only the subway system would learn from the light rail. With the subway you still get a tiny little ticket on very flimsy thin paper which as you walk through the gate, a woman will rip of the corner for you. With the light rail (if you're not using a smart card), you need to keep your ticket to get out at the other end. I wasn't sure if I had to do the same for the subway so I hung onto my subway ticket but it had almost completely disintegrated by the time I reached Tiananmen Square. Luckily I didn't need it again.
Studying and people-watching
Anyway I headed to the cafe. The non-smoking section was full unfortunately so I went up to the smoking section.The waitresses regularly fill up your glass with hot water which is surprisingly refreshing given the weather. Normally I like drinking chilled water but for some reason the hot water still hits the spot. I ordered a baked pasta with bolognaise, cherry tomatoes, capsicum and lots of melted cheese. As I was saying to Martyn, I am having the worst cravings for melted cheddar cheese. I've always liked cheese but I guess it's the fact that traditional Chinese cuisine just doesn't have cheese ..... so suddenly I really want it! :)
I stayed at the cafe for about four hours and got heaps done. I read all of the text for comprehension class and memorised how to write all of the new characters. Then I read the text for conversation class but haven't memorised how to write all the words yet. For reading class I have to find an article (in Chinese of course) and read it, write down new words and write an opinion. I decided on a movie magazine because I thought it might be easier for a first article if I picked something of interest to me. I was tossing up between an article about "Constantine" or "Howl's Moving Castle" I've decided on the "Howl" article because its more of a review. The Constantine article is more of an expose on Keanu Reeves and a Behind the Scenes about the movie so of little reading value from a study point of view. I have to remember to write my review of the cam job of "Constantine" I watched.
While I was in the cafe, I could see so many people coming and going. There was one scrawny (slightly creepy looking) American guy who sat down at the table next to me. He had a girl with him - I couldn't tell if she was Chinese, Japanese or Korean because she seriously said almost nothing the whole time. It was really painful because the guy was trying to make conversation from absolutely nothing. He told her about his family, about how he doesn't look like his father, about his likes and dislikes and she just sat there. They'd obviously slept together the night before because he said things like: "You kept me up late last night baby - you're just too beautiful" but clearly the conversational component of the relationship is a bit lacking ..... In the end, he gave up and called for the bill. I notice that she didn't even pretend to reach for her purse to pay.
If you're wondering how I heard all this, it's because people often speak so loudly and as I was just practising writing characters over and over and over again, my attention could afford to wander a little.
Then there was the table behind me. The girl was Japanese and absolutely stunning. She was like a Japanese doll / pop singer / movie star with those huge kittenish eyes, hair dyed reddish, extremely pale face with dark lipstick. Despite the weather she was wearing a crop top / tank top and tight gym pants which were slung extremely slow so that you could see a lot of ummmm ... back cleavage and the fact that the only underwear she was wearing was less than a g-string ... more like a tiny string ...... She had a tattoo on the small of her back and interestingly enough, she had odd scars on her right arm - almost like she had suffered severe burns or something. She also smoked like a chimney. Anyway she was with a nerdy looking American guy wearing overly long shorts and too many piercings in his ear and she kept complaining about the fact that guys kept harassing her and looking her up and down and asking her out. In the end the guy seemed to get sick of it because the guy just got up and walked off on her and she picked up her things and ran after him. It was quite odd.
By that time I had moved onto conversation text and was wondering how much longer I could survive the smoke but I really had to get as much of my homework done that required a table. The rest I could do at home on my bed, but I need a table to write ...... Then I saw a girl who looked like she might be a little bit Chinese but not much. She was mostly Western and she spoke incredibly fluent Mandarin but it was clearly not her native language because she still didn't have the tones. I think it won't be long before she has them though because her Mandarin was so good - really fluent and she clearly felt comfortable speaking it. It was just weird to hear the offness of the tones.
I guess I sound weird when I talk too. I'll talk, sometimes quite fast, but my tones just must sound "not right" to a Chinese person - explaining the funny looks I get.....
Then at another table near me, an extremely young, scrawny looking kid sat down. He was very grungey and looked at that awkward, pimply adolescent stage. He spoke to the waitresses very rudely. I assumed he was American from his accent. Another friend came up - he looked a bit older but kind of dopey - and sat with him and the two of them started raving on about a party they were at last night were they both got smashed, checked out hot chicks and neither of them had had a shower yet and were both still wearing the same clothes. Ewww. Then as I was finishing my homework, I started thinking that there was something wrong with my hearing because all of a sudden, it wasn't so easy to understand what they were saying. Then I realised that for some reason, they had both switched to French ....... not American - they were Canadian. All of a sudden I was filled with an overwhelming envy for people who can express themselves so clearly and comfortably in a different language like that. Clearly when they spoke about topic A, they prefered to use English, but for topic B, French was better for them but they were so comfortable in both languages. Unfortunately both smoked like chimneys as well.
Interesting enough, sometimes it seems like everyone summons the waitresses as 服务员 （fúwùyuán), meaning attendant, clerk, service personnel and at other times, it's 小姐 (xiǎojie) ie miss / young lady. I know xiǎojie can have some off connotations but I have to remember to ask dad whether it's rude to call someone fúwùyuán to yourself. I'm trying to think what we say in English. "Excuse me, miss" . "Excuse me, waiter?" Hmmm.
Anyway, I had almost made up my mind to go and noticed an Italian boy had come in with who I thought was his very pretty Chinese girlfriend. She spoke fluent Italian as well though and I guess she was an IBC - Italian Born Chinese? Interesting how Chinese go everywhere and become whatever nationality ...... This girl was completely Italian - chain-smoked like a European too :P Problem for her was, another Italian girl saw them and obviously thought that simply because she knew them, she could just join them, proceeded to sit down and TOTALLY take over the conversation. So I noticed that the boy and the Western Italian girl were jabbering away and the poor girlfriend was bored out of her mind and didn't get a word in edgewise. The boy was a bit thick, not noticing (or caring?) that his girlfriend was being excluded and was bored. They were chainsmoking and at that moment, 2 Japanese sat near me and started smoking too so I gave up, packed up my books and decided to finish the rest of my homework at home.
Dust and housework
Despite being the most undomestic person in the world, I just bought a mop and mopped the apartment.I don't know why but the apartment gets dusty in a day and the broom wasn't enough, so I went for mop and detergent today. I'm hopeless at cleaning so didn't do a great job but managed to banish the bulk of the dust. My vacuum cleaner will arrive with my furniture soon so hopefully that will make life easier. Anyway, I'm going to finish the rest of my homework now. I have a few missed calls, I have a feeling that Nudge (Big Boss #3) has been phoning as he's arriving in Bejing tonight.
Entertaining visitors and shrivelling up like a mummy
I've pretty much decided to take him to a restaurant in Beijing called 谭鱼头 (Tán yútóu) ie Tan Fish Head. It's a new Sichuan restaurant that has opened in Beijing.Dad found an article about it which is here. It looks quite good. Funny thing is I asked Hera to get me some moisturiser because it's so dry here I am shrivelling up and she's given it to Nudge to bring here...... Fortunately despite being Big Boss #3, he doesn't seem to mind being a courier of face cream. Back in HK or Australia, it took me about 5min to put moisturiser on before I went outside, here in Beijing it's so horribly dry that it takes about 15minutes. I have to put on about 3 layers and even that seems to disappear within half an hour!
I told Hera I'm going to look like this by the time I leave Beijing!!:
Eeek! :)
Hera's coming to the rescue though and also finding some of the following for me:
Normally I use Sorbolene or Neutrogena for sensitive skin but it's been so dry that anything I put on my skin stings and is extremely painful. It sounds melodramatic but a few days ago, as soon as any cream touched my skin, it felt like it was on fire - a thousand needles and I actually started to have tears pouring down my face it hurt so much. I couldn't see that anything was wrong - no rash or visible dryness, it just felt so painful. My skin is heaps better now but the moisturiser will come in handy. Hera to the rescue yet again. I owe her too many favours!! I can't even auction my liver on ebay to give to her because she doesn't drink either so her liver is fine ;)
Speaking of ebay, I've asked Martyn to monitor a set of all 11 Paddington bear books for me. My own ebay account seems to have died long ago and besides, if I sign up for new, a lot of the American suppliers won't ship overseas to someone with no purchasing history....... Anyway, off for a shower and to finish my homework. One of the texts is hilarious. It goes: "I didn't use to cook much, but now I am married of course I must cook for my husband".
PS: The beautiful Takeshi Kaneshiro has a new movie coming out. Yay!! See here. I can't wait!!!
Oh I just found some photos on my phone that I hadn't uploaded yet.
I saw these in Canberra and was going to buy them for Martyn but they were expensive and I wasn't sure he'd like them :) I was going to enter them in our Ugly Things Contest.
Name of a shop HK.... weird, huh?
Baby I saw at the subway yesterday. Hera has a hat that is almost exactly the same style - very cute :)
Foreign students sitting in the cafe on 8 March. Guy with the weird ponytail had a very "ennui" manner about him and the guy in red said stuff like: "Do you smoke weed?" :)
Queue for enrolment. Keep in mind it was below zero and the enrolment process was so disorganised that it took about five hours to complete - well mine did anyway!!!
Restaurant near here where I often buy takeaway:
I tried to look for photos of the perfect 馒头 but failed unfortunately. The ones I have sort of look like this:
But they can look fancier like this:
And in the marketplace you can see them being steamed like this:
Anyway, it's a nice simple snack. :)
Funny thing is while I was looking for a photo of 馒头, I found this. A photo of a cat named 馒头猫 ie his name is mántou māo - steamed bun cat because he looks like a little bun :) I don't like cats (being a dog person) but he is very cute, non? :)
Late starts and smartcards
I woke up a little late this morning because of a late one and then went into wudaokou by lightrail to the Sculpteasy Cafe.Rather than buying my RMB3 ticket each time, I've bought a smart cart for the light rail - it costs RMB30 and I put RMB70 on it which seems worth it given that I will undoubtedly be going back and forth frequently. The great thing is it means I don't have to queue up anymore and I can just go running through. As you swipe when you enter, it registers you have entered the rail system. When you leave through the other station, it deducts RMB3. There are also machines at each station where you can see your balance and also even see when you last used the card. It's surprisingly high tech. Now if only the subway system would learn from the light rail. With the subway you still get a tiny little ticket on very flimsy thin paper which as you walk through the gate, a woman will rip of the corner for you. With the light rail (if you're not using a smart card), you need to keep your ticket to get out at the other end. I wasn't sure if I had to do the same for the subway so I hung onto my subway ticket but it had almost completely disintegrated by the time I reached Tiananmen Square. Luckily I didn't need it again.
Studying and people-watching
Anyway I headed to the cafe. The non-smoking section was full unfortunately so I went up to the smoking section.The waitresses regularly fill up your glass with hot water which is surprisingly refreshing given the weather. Normally I like drinking chilled water but for some reason the hot water still hits the spot. I ordered a baked pasta with bolognaise, cherry tomatoes, capsicum and lots of melted cheese. As I was saying to Martyn, I am having the worst cravings for melted cheddar cheese. I've always liked cheese but I guess it's the fact that traditional Chinese cuisine just doesn't have cheese ..... so suddenly I really want it! :)
I stayed at the cafe for about four hours and got heaps done. I read all of the text for comprehension class and memorised how to write all of the new characters. Then I read the text for conversation class but haven't memorised how to write all the words yet. For reading class I have to find an article (in Chinese of course) and read it, write down new words and write an opinion. I decided on a movie magazine because I thought it might be easier for a first article if I picked something of interest to me. I was tossing up between an article about "Constantine" or "Howl's Moving Castle" I've decided on the "Howl" article because its more of a review. The Constantine article is more of an expose on Keanu Reeves and a Behind the Scenes about the movie so of little reading value from a study point of view. I have to remember to write my review of the cam job of "Constantine" I watched.
While I was in the cafe, I could see so many people coming and going. There was one scrawny (slightly creepy looking) American guy who sat down at the table next to me. He had a girl with him - I couldn't tell if she was Chinese, Japanese or Korean because she seriously said almost nothing the whole time. It was really painful because the guy was trying to make conversation from absolutely nothing. He told her about his family, about how he doesn't look like his father, about his likes and dislikes and she just sat there. They'd obviously slept together the night before because he said things like: "You kept me up late last night baby - you're just too beautiful" but clearly the conversational component of the relationship is a bit lacking ..... In the end, he gave up and called for the bill. I notice that she didn't even pretend to reach for her purse to pay.
If you're wondering how I heard all this, it's because people often speak so loudly and as I was just practising writing characters over and over and over again, my attention could afford to wander a little.
Then there was the table behind me. The girl was Japanese and absolutely stunning. She was like a Japanese doll / pop singer / movie star with those huge kittenish eyes, hair dyed reddish, extremely pale face with dark lipstick. Despite the weather she was wearing a crop top / tank top and tight gym pants which were slung extremely slow so that you could see a lot of ummmm ... back cleavage and the fact that the only underwear she was wearing was less than a g-string ... more like a tiny string ...... She had a tattoo on the small of her back and interestingly enough, she had odd scars on her right arm - almost like she had suffered severe burns or something. She also smoked like a chimney. Anyway she was with a nerdy looking American guy wearing overly long shorts and too many piercings in his ear and she kept complaining about the fact that guys kept harassing her and looking her up and down and asking her out. In the end the guy seemed to get sick of it because the guy just got up and walked off on her and she picked up her things and ran after him. It was quite odd.
By that time I had moved onto conversation text and was wondering how much longer I could survive the smoke but I really had to get as much of my homework done that required a table. The rest I could do at home on my bed, but I need a table to write ...... Then I saw a girl who looked like she might be a little bit Chinese but not much. She was mostly Western and she spoke incredibly fluent Mandarin but it was clearly not her native language because she still didn't have the tones. I think it won't be long before she has them though because her Mandarin was so good - really fluent and she clearly felt comfortable speaking it. It was just weird to hear the offness of the tones.
I guess I sound weird when I talk too. I'll talk, sometimes quite fast, but my tones just must sound "not right" to a Chinese person - explaining the funny looks I get.....
Then at another table near me, an extremely young, scrawny looking kid sat down. He was very grungey and looked at that awkward, pimply adolescent stage. He spoke to the waitresses very rudely. I assumed he was American from his accent. Another friend came up - he looked a bit older but kind of dopey - and sat with him and the two of them started raving on about a party they were at last night were they both got smashed, checked out hot chicks and neither of them had had a shower yet and were both still wearing the same clothes. Ewww. Then as I was finishing my homework, I started thinking that there was something wrong with my hearing because all of a sudden, it wasn't so easy to understand what they were saying. Then I realised that for some reason, they had both switched to French ....... not American - they were Canadian. All of a sudden I was filled with an overwhelming envy for people who can express themselves so clearly and comfortably in a different language like that. Clearly when they spoke about topic A, they prefered to use English, but for topic B, French was better for them but they were so comfortable in both languages. Unfortunately both smoked like chimneys as well.
Interesting enough, sometimes it seems like everyone summons the waitresses as 服务员 （fúwùyuán), meaning attendant, clerk, service personnel and at other times, it's 小姐 (xiǎojie) ie miss / young lady. I know xiǎojie can have some off connotations but I have to remember to ask dad whether it's rude to call someone fúwùyuán to yourself. I'm trying to think what we say in English. "Excuse me, miss" . "Excuse me, waiter?" Hmmm.
Anyway, I had almost made up my mind to go and noticed an Italian boy had come in with who I thought was his very pretty Chinese girlfriend. She spoke fluent Italian as well though and I guess she was an IBC - Italian Born Chinese? Interesting how Chinese go everywhere and become whatever nationality ...... This girl was completely Italian - chain-smoked like a European too :P Problem for her was, another Italian girl saw them and obviously thought that simply because she knew them, she could just join them, proceeded to sit down and TOTALLY take over the conversation. So I noticed that the boy and the Western Italian girl were jabbering away and the poor girlfriend was bored out of her mind and didn't get a word in edgewise. The boy was a bit thick, not noticing (or caring?) that his girlfriend was being excluded and was bored. They were chainsmoking and at that moment, 2 Japanese sat near me and started smoking too so I gave up, packed up my books and decided to finish the rest of my homework at home.
Dust and housework
Despite being the most undomestic person in the world, I just bought a mop and mopped the apartment.I don't know why but the apartment gets dusty in a day and the broom wasn't enough, so I went for mop and detergent today. I'm hopeless at cleaning so didn't do a great job but managed to banish the bulk of the dust. My vacuum cleaner will arrive with my furniture soon so hopefully that will make life easier. Anyway, I'm going to finish the rest of my homework now. I have a few missed calls, I have a feeling that Nudge (Big Boss #3) has been phoning as he's arriving in Bejing tonight.
Entertaining visitors and shrivelling up like a mummy
I've pretty much decided to take him to a restaurant in Beijing called 谭鱼头 (Tán yútóu) ie Tan Fish Head. It's a new Sichuan restaurant that has opened in Beijing.Dad found an article about it which is here. It looks quite good. Funny thing is I asked Hera to get me some moisturiser because it's so dry here I am shrivelling up and she's given it to Nudge to bring here...... Fortunately despite being Big Boss #3, he doesn't seem to mind being a courier of face cream. Back in HK or Australia, it took me about 5min to put moisturiser on before I went outside, here in Beijing it's so horribly dry that it takes about 15minutes. I have to put on about 3 layers and even that seems to disappear within half an hour!
I told Hera I'm going to look like this by the time I leave Beijing!!:
Eeek! :)
Hera's coming to the rescue though and also finding some of the following for me:
Normally I use Sorbolene or Neutrogena for sensitive skin but it's been so dry that anything I put on my skin stings and is extremely painful. It sounds melodramatic but a few days ago, as soon as any cream touched my skin, it felt like it was on fire - a thousand needles and I actually started to have tears pouring down my face it hurt so much. I couldn't see that anything was wrong - no rash or visible dryness, it just felt so painful. My skin is heaps better now but the moisturiser will come in handy. Hera to the rescue yet again. I owe her too many favours!! I can't even auction my liver on ebay to give to her because she doesn't drink either so her liver is fine ;)
Speaking of ebay, I've asked Martyn to monitor a set of all 11 Paddington bear books for me. My own ebay account seems to have died long ago and besides, if I sign up for new, a lot of the American suppliers won't ship overseas to someone with no purchasing history....... Anyway, off for a shower and to finish my homework. One of the texts is hilarious. It goes: "I didn't use to cook much, but now I am married of course I must cook for my husband".
PS: The beautiful Takeshi Kaneshiro has a new movie coming out. Yay!! See here. I can't wait!!!
Oh I just found some photos on my phone that I hadn't uploaded yet.
I saw these in Canberra and was going to buy them for Martyn but they were expensive and I wasn't sure he'd like them :) I was going to enter them in our Ugly Things Contest.
Name of a shop HK.... weird, huh?
Baby I saw at the subway yesterday. Hera has a hat that is almost exactly the same style - very cute :)
Foreign students sitting in the cafe on 8 March. Guy with the weird ponytail had a very "ennui" manner about him and the guy in red said stuff like: "Do you smoke weed?" :)
Queue for enrolment. Keep in mind it was below zero and the enrolment process was so disorganised that it took about five hours to complete - well mine did anyway!!!
Restaurant near here where I often buy takeaway: